The calls came early
to protect the children,
always
the first refuge of would-be censors,
and their desires were granted
in many locales

But
there were others not on board
with government censorship,
who
proposed alternative censorship
to be provided by them,
and
the National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures
was formed in 1909:
more
than a mere advisory board
but less than full-fledged censorship,
putting their seal on movies
that had been reviewed and approved

After Mutual,
the Board would change its name,
though
not its mission, in 1916,
to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures,
operating on the theory that it was better
to take away part of the loaf yourself
than to have the whole loaf taken away by others:
:better that occasional lapses may occur
than encounter the danger of governmental censorship
or denial of free expression”,
a solution that satisfied few

Though there would be later attempts
at this sort of semi-official censorship

MICHAEL CERAOLO is a 65-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had two full-length books (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press) published, and has two more in the publication pipeline